Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion by Rodney Stark

Finally, social scientists have started to try to appreciate spiritual habit instead of to discredit it as irrational, ignorant, or foolish—and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke have performed an enormous function during this new process. Acknowledging that technological know-how can't check the supernatural facet of faith (and consequently usually are not declare to do so), Stark and Finke examine the observable, human part of religion. In transparent and interesting prose, the authors mix particular theorizing with lively discussions as they circulation from contemplating the religiousness of people to the dynamics of non secular teams after which to the spiritual workings of complete societies as spiritual teams contend for help. the result's a accomplished new paradigm for the social-scientific learn of religion.

Why figuring out America's spiritual panorama Is an important problem dealing with Us this present day The Nineteen Nineties observed the U. S. military fee its first Muslim chaplain and open its first mosque. There are shortly greater than 300 temples in l. a., domestic to the best number of Buddhists on this planet.

The Platform Sutra occupies a primary position in Zen (Ch'an) Buddhist guide for college kids and religious seekers world wide. it is usually associated with the guts Sutra and The Diamond Sutra to shape a trio of texts which have been respected and studied for hundreds of years. even if, not like the opposite sutras, which transcribe the lessons of the Buddha himself, The Platform Sutra provides the autobiography of Hui-neng, the arguable sixth Patriarch of Zen, and his knowing of the basics of a non secular and functional lifestyles.

This ebook captures the autobiographical reflections of twenty-eight Christians who have been among those that, within the wake of the second one Vatican Council (1962-65) and projects of the area Council of church buildings, devoted their lives to the research of Islam and to sensible Christian-Muslim kinfolk in new and irenic methods.

Extra resources for Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion

Sample text

Is nothing but the fantastic reﬂection in men’s minds of those external forces which control their daily lives,” Marx and Engels explained ([] , ). ” In similar fashion, in his famous study of suicide, although the topic of religion takes up a substantial portion of the book, Emile Durkheim ([] ) did not treat religion as something in itself, but only as an elaborate reﬂection of the more basic reality: degree of social integration (Stark and Bainbridge ). Seeking to explain why religious movements arise, Bryan Wilson invoked a litany of secular crises and disturbances: Change in the economic position of a particular group .

This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves” (Pensée no. ; [] , ). Most of the world’s religious scriptures abound in the language of exchange: O Indra . . may plentiful libations of the people, and singing sages’ holy prayers rejoice thee . . ) Make for Me an altar of earth and sacriﬁce on it your burnt oﬀerings and your sacriﬁces of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you.

Maybe all of this is for nothing. But then I say to myself, if it’s true then I’m in on the ground ﬂoor of the greatest event in history. And if it isn’t, so what? I was probably going to spend the rest of my life working in that plywood plant anyway. What “all of this” that might be for nothing consisted of was the total dedication of his life and property to missionary activity. In those days, there was no room in the Uniﬁcation Church for part-time lay members. It was all or nothing. All of the Uniﬁcationists observed by Stark were fully aware that membership was very costly, and, like the young man quoted above, they openly discussed this and frequently balanced the costs and beneﬁts of belonging.